Peter Borwein – författare

The research of Jonathan Borwein has had a profound impact on optimization, functional analysis, operations research, mathematical programming, number theory, and experimental mathematics. Having authored more than a dozen books and more than 300 publications, Jonathan Borwein is one of the most productive Canadian mathematicians ever. His research spans pure, applied, and computational mathematics as well as high performance computing, and continues to have an enormous impact: MathSciNet lists more than 2500 citations by more than 1250 authors, and Borwein is one of the 250 most cited mathematicians of the period 1980-1999. He has served the Canadian Mathematics Community through his presidency (2000–02) as well as his 15 years of editing the CMS book series.

Jonathan Borwein’s vision and initiative have been crucial in initiating and developing several institutions that provide support for researchers with a wide range of scientific interests. A few notable examples include the Centre for Experimental and Constructive Mathematics and the IRMACS Centre at Simon Fraser University, the Dalhousie Distributed Research Institute at Dalhousie University, the Western Canada Research Grid, and the Centre for Computer Assisted Research Mathematics and its Applications, University of Newcastle.

The workshops that were held over the years in Dr. Borwein’s honor attracted high-caliber scientists from a wide range of mathematical fields. This present volume is an outgrowth of the workshop on ‘Computational and Analytical Mathematics’ held in May 2011 in celebration of Dr. Borwein’s 60th Birthday. The collection contains various state-of-the-art research manuscripts and surveys presenting contributions that have risen from the conference, and is an excellent opportunity to survey state-of-the-art research and discuss promising research directions and approaches.

This book documents the history of pi from the dawn of mathematical time to the present. One of the beauties of the literature on pi is that it allows for the inclusion of very modern, yet accessible, mathematics. The articles on pi collected herein include selections from the mathematical and computational literature over four millennia, a variety of historical studies on the cultural significance of the number, and an assortment of anecdotal, fanciful, and simply amusing pieces.

For this new edition, the authors have updated the original material while adding new material of historical and cultural interest. There is a substantial exposition of the recent history of the computation of digits of pi, a discussion of the normality of the distribution of the digits, new translations of works by Viete and Huygen, as well as Kaplansky''s never-before-published "Song of Pi."

From the reviews of earlier editions:

"Few mathematics books serve a wider potential readership than does a source book and this particular one is admirably designed to cater for a broad spectrum of tastes: professional mathematicians with research interest in related subjects, historians of mathematics, teachers at all levels searching out material for individual talks and student projects, and amateurs who will find much to amuse and inform them in this leafy tome. The authors are to be congratulated on their good taste in preparing such a rich and varied banquet with which to celebrate pi."- Roger Webster for the Bulletin of the LMS

"The judicious representative selection makes this a useful addition to one''s library as a reference book, an enjoyable survey of developments and a source of elegant and deep mathematics of different eras."- Ed Barbeau for MathSciNet

"Full of useful formulas and ideas, it is a vast source of inspiration to any mathematician, A level and upwards-a necessity in any maths library."- New Scientist